Texas primary may be delayed by high court ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court ordered a Texas panel of federal judges on Friday to redraw its interim redistricting maps, a decision that will probably postpone Texas's already-delayed primary elections.

In their unanimous ruling, the justices wrote that the panel in San Antonio, should have used the maps passed by the Legislature for Texas House, Senate and congressional seats as the basis for their plans.

However, the justices also wrote that the San Antonio panel had the authority to change the state's redistricting plans where it found a "reasonable probability" that the Legislature's changes violate the Voting Rights Act.

"It looks like a hard-fought compromise. It looks like there was give and take in the opinion," said Michael Li, an elections law attorney, who had closely followed the redistricting litigation. "This is not Bush v. Gore, where you have a 5-4 split."

The order was seen as a mixed victory for Attorney General Greg Abbott, who opposed a San Antonio court's interim maps; and minority rights groups who oppose the maps drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature.

"The Supreme Court's swift decision will allow Texas to move forward with elections as soon as possible, under maps that are lawful," Abbott said in a statement.

Jose Garza, who argued the case before the Supreme Court last week for the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, said the order gives guidance on how new political districts should be drawn and orders more explanation from the justices.

"The court in Texas must be more clear," Garza said. "We could come up with something very similar to the San Antonio maps; the court just has to explain it better."

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Luis Vera, counsel for the League of United Latin American Citizens, said minority groups expected the Supreme Court to send the interim maps back to the lower court.

"Don't read too much into this," Vera said. "I think we are going to get a better map."

Texas Republican Party spokesman Chris Elam said he was hopeful that the San Antonio court would be able to rule quickly enough to avoid delaying the primary again. Texas Republicans and Democrats worked out a deal in December that delayed the Texas primary elections until April 3 after the initial stay of the interim redistricting maps threw the election calendar into chaos.

The Justice Department, in its brief to the Supreme Court, argued for a remand and more explanation from the lower court.

At stake in the redistricting battle are Democratic attempts to win more congressional seats that could aid their efforts to win back the U.S. House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a 242-192 majority, with one vacancy.

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Democrats also complained that the state maps decrease the number of seats for minorities in the Texas House and strip Democrats of one seat in the Texas Senate.

The state-drawn map by the legislature must meet preclearance requirements under the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Texas is one of nine states that need Justice Department approval of new maps because of a pattern of past racial prejudice.

A two-week trial to determine whether the legislature's maps do not discriminate is ongoing in Washington, where testimony continued Friday.Judge Rosemary Collyer said from the bench that she was unsure whether the Supreme Court order to the San Antonio court would have any impact on the ongoing preclearance trial.

"It may mean we are not in a race with the Supreme Court to make our decision," Collyer said.